Sunday, December 03, 2006

As I write this- at 5:45 on Sunday morning- I'm feeling much,much better. I got up to have some tea and was going to go back to bed, but the house is so warm, the tea is so good, and it occurs to me that I have not stopped by to say hey in almost a week. I hate non updated blogs! :)

But...yeah, this is about the worst I've been since I got mono back in college in like...what was that?...92? But I've been close a few other times this year. Had strep in July, some viral stomach thing about 4 months back. Crazy.

My doc tells me it's a mix of having 2 kids (who bring home every germ under the sun) and simply not getting enough sleep; so my immune system is not as tough as it should be. So, more sleep for me I guess (says the guy who is up at 5:45am surfing the net!)

I know this is even more rambly than my other posts...sorry about that. I'm just coming off the Tylenol/Codine high from last night.

So...

....SO...

...let's close that door and get the prom queen impre-...ah never mind :)

So:

This week, most of all I did was sleep and cough so hard and often that my throat is now nice and razor-blade raw. I did also manage to piss my boss off a bit via a poorly timed, poorly written bad-fever dreamed email rant. But he's cool. At least I think! I like to pretend that I'm like Axel Foley and he's like the Detroit police chief and even tho I can go off and get cocky and loud and break the rules, he knows that my heart is in the right place and all I care about it catching the bad guys. Serious, I like to pretend that. Really.

But so, while sick and lying in bed, I did get a change to catch up on some tv, comics, and a few web sites. So, if you don't mind too much, here's some cool things I found over the week:

COOL THING I DISCOVERED WHILE SICK #1- OUR PROUDEST MOMENT?

Out of all the accolates and awards GOD OF WAR has been given, this one- to me- may rank as the MOST important. A court in Illinois shot down a law which would have forced video games with sexual content to be labeled and displayed in much the same way as pornography. While I am 1000% behind protecting kids and even adults from potentially offensive material via labelling, I think the problem is that games need to have the same opportunities of expression as other media. And since the ESRB says itself that their ratings are more conservative than motion picture ratings, it means that- if a bill like this were to pass- games that contain movie-like content of the PG-13 and R rated vareity would be treated as if they were XXX rated films. For someone like myself, who think some games should be designed for teens and adults (and not kids), this law would have been a very bad thing. So not only was I thrilled when the law was shot down, I was even more thrilled when it was OUR game that was cited as a core reason the court had for not keeping the proposed law alive. Check it out, from a write up on the ruling:

An integral part of the court's analysis was its concern that the statute would criminalize the sale of material "without concern for the game considered in its entirety or for the game's social value for minors." As a case in point, the court looked to the game God of War, which tracks the Homeric epic Odyssey in content and theme. Although that game shows exposed breasts, the court held that "there is serious reason to believe that a statute sweeps too broadly when it prohibits a game that is essentially an interactive, digital version of the Odyssey."

COOL THING I DISCOVERED WHILE BEING SICK #2- MOTIVATIONAL GAME POSTERS- The guys over at neogaf (aka gaming age forum.com) are running a great thread on video game motivational posters. Here's my- naturally- favorite one so far:

I want this full sized so I can hang it in my office at Sony!

COOL THING I DISCOVERED WHILE BEING SICK #3-ALL PRESS IS NOT BAD PRESS!

Over the week, two bits of press that I did hit the net. One was an audio track from last year's GDC; a panel I did with Lorne Lanning from Oddworld. You can listen to it- if you are so inclined- here:

The other bit of press is from last month's Playboy Mansion Party. This is the video I thought would kill my career as I did it while shit-faced. I also did it at the URGING of Jeff Reese, the marketing guy I share the scene with in this clip. But gametrailers did a nice editing job and made me look- I think- not like an ass! Thanks GameTrailers! :)

Oh, by the way, and because some folks have asked: yes I am short. 5'6 to be exact. BUT those two guys you see me with are also TALL as all get out...as in Frankenstein-style! So it really does make me look like some participant in some forced perspective hobbit bullshit.

COOL THING I DISCOVERED WHILE BEING SICK #4- FANTASTIC FOUR MOVIE

I've had this flic sitting on my Tivo for months. I watched the first 10 minutes back in August and was like: ehh, this is pretty lame. But something kept me from deleting it. I'm really glad cause I got to watch the whole thing this week and now it ranks as one of my fave superhero movies ever! I know, I know. It's a B movie AT BEST! I get it, I'm no dork. It lacks all kinds of things that make films like XMEN 2 and SUPERMAN 1/2 the kings of the genre...I give you that; no doubt. No argument.

BUT I still really enjoyed the hell out of this movie once it got going. Just like I thought XMEN 3 was the MUCH, MUCH better Superhero Movie this summer (when compared to Superman Returns).

Clearly Superman Returns is a richer, meatier film. Same goes for Xmen 2 over Xmen3. And yes, I admit Fantastic Four is a real stinker in some areas. But you know what? For me, it was really fun to watch!

I think it's the same reason- for you comic geeks out there- I love the easy, breezy, no-one-gets-THAT-hurt Spidey stories by Todd Dezago much more than the current fan fave stories penned by J.M.S. Sure, the JMS stories are more ambitiouys have more of a mature theme, but I like my comics (and comic movies) to be 80-90% fun and 10% angst and dark. But the comic movies these days tend to glom on to the dark, dreary part of comics and the fun stuff tends to get the shaft. So while I do love some of the current fan-fave hero flicks (Batman Begins is a fave of mine), I gotta say, Fantastic Four rocked for me...and has me even more excited now about a film like GHOST RIDER....not to mention FF2..

And speaking of FF2, while I was sick, Fox put out an image of the Fantasticar from part 2. And this thrills me because they got the flying car, they got the Silver Surfer, hell, I hear they even got Galactus. I love it when the movie guys stop being 100% terrified of being a bit silly and embrace the source material. I mean, sure, they gotta be smart, they can't make a panel for panel translation. SOME of the recent hero movies are RIGHT to step even further away from the source material to attract a wide audience. BUT, it's nice to know there are SOME movies that embrace the source material like a 10 year old kid with an 80 million dollar budget!

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